A young artist from Sunderland, Riez Purba has a mainstream sound that you don’t hear often when you listen to a lot of independent music. It’s a sound, and a vocal, which has caught the eye of the judges at this year’s UK wide Open Mic UK contest, and sees him hopeful of progressing further having reached the Regional Finals in Newcastle.
Those finals happen next weekend, and the company behind the competition, Future Music, are serious about uncovering new talent having worked with the likes of Birdy and Lucy Spraggan previously. It might just be that Riez Purba, with his upbeat blend of pop and dance music (plus an ear for a catchy chorus) can follow in their footsteps and carve out a place for himself in the industry.
But first, he’ll have to impress the industry judges, tasked with whittling down the thousands of Open Mic UK entrants. There’s still a way to go yet for Riez Purba, but he’ll be hoping that this particular journey doesn’t come to an end next weekend.
